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The Change (season two) ★★★★★
Bridget Christie, the creator, writer and star of The Change, has described her show as “science-fiction, magic realism, a western, a comedy, a tragedy”.
You could add “instructional aid for how to move through the world as a woman generally” because this series – BAFTA-nominated and now in its second season – is an education as much as it is funny, sad, idiosyncratic, dangerous, otherworldly and a great big kick in the teeth to misogyny.
Bridget Christie stars as Linda, who starts a new life in The Change.
The latter, done with subtlety, dark and ridiculous humour and a kind of plain-speaking poetic heft, is found in the story of Linda, a long-married woman having an existential crisis.
She left her boorish husband (Omid Djalili) and two teenage children in season one, hoping to find herself. She wants to take back the 3.5 million minutes of domestic servitude – all logged in a ledger – that have reduced her self-worth and potential. Linda thinks she has early-onset dementia. Her sighing male GP says it’s menopause.
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Having headed to the Forest of Dean, a mystical ancient woodland area in Gloucestershire, she discovers eccentrics, artists, eel fisherwomen and a tight-knit village of everyday folk who share news, views and gossip via a radio station (broadcast into the streets via loudspeakers). She is accepted and rises to be crowned Eel Queen (eels are folklore and snacks).
Series two begins just after Linda’s real identity (a married mother) is revealed, cancelling her monarchy. The townspeople call for a trial. After a moving speech, Linda is accepted and her chore ledger ignites the female townsfolk. Sick of doing all the housework, women start “Linda ledgers”, rebelling and treating Linda like a leader, pestering her for advice in their new-found quest for equality. Even Linda’s disapproving sister (Liza Tarbuck) arrives, also seeking self-discovery after years of drudgery on the home front.
The magic of The Change is all its parts. There are scenes in the woodland akin to a painting or a filmic artwork. The characters – beyond easy explanation or recognisable TV tropes – are mysterious and full of depth.
Forest characters the Eel sisters, serving eel and mashed potato “to men who want to get away from their wives”, are a show in themselves. The Verderer, a perpetually angry man played by Jim Howick, is a perfect portrait of jaded sexists everywhere, ever-affronted by Linda and her independence.
Omid Djalili play’s Linda’s ex-husband in The Change.
Tony, played by veteran comedian Paul Whitehouse, is a joy, his face dawning with understanding every time Linda explains the reality of equality across a pub table.
But it’s Christie’s Linda who is the star. She’s discovering what she wants in this season, shedding her old self, and we’re right behind her. One scene in the first episode almost encapsulates Christie and Linda’s whole ethos. Tony tells her men are better than women at telling jokes because girls don’t need to be funny. They can attract boys “by just sitting there”.
Linda looks at him, calmly. “What about girls who use humour as a tool to negotiate their way through life?” she says. “What about girls who are being bullied or harassed or abused, and they use it as a coping mechanism?”
What, she says, if they’re just born really funny or they simply like the feeling of making people laugh?
Too right. Thanks, Linda.
The Change premieres on Sunday, October 26, on SBS On Demand and airs at 11.35pm on SBS Viceland.
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